The O'Loan report on collusion

Tensions will be evident today as Nuala O'Loan presents the findings of her report of the collusion of the RUC with British loyalist terrorists. The report has highlighted collusion with loyalists behind over a dozen murders in north Belfast - during the 1990s - at a time when Sir Ronnie Flanagan was in charge.

Yesterday Dermot Ahern the Irish foreign minister said that agreement for divolved goverment could not move forward until those involved in collusion with terrorists saw justice, through the British government dealing with the issue of security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries once and for all. Dermot Ahern, is to meet members of Sinn Féin and the SDLP today to discuss the outcome of the Police Ombudsman's O'Loans report on collusion and policing in the north of Ireland.

The report found that the RUC had colluded with loyalists in over a dozen murders in north Belfast. Nuala O'Loan's report said special branch UVF informers committed murders and other serious crimes while working as informers for Special Branch. The report also states that two retired assistant chief constables refused to cooperate with the investigation. RUC Special Branch officers gave the killers immunity, the report said.
It has been revealed that the special branch paid one UVF commander Mark Haddock at least £80.000 for information, that a former member of special branch says was the UVF mans work all along. Trevor McIlwrath also stated yesterday that he had been frustrated by fellow senior officers once he suspected that it was Haddock himself sanctioning crimes including murder. McIlwraith accused other members of special branch of protecting Haddock, ensuring that several searches for evidence including guns and ammunition was tipped off prior, searches he claimed he had insitigated to get Haddock and his gang jailed. The former special branch handler went onto state that he felt physically sick to think that Haddock had been paid for providing information on murders such as Sharon McKenna a young innocent Irish girl when he knew now that Haddock carried the murder out this with his UVF gang. Mark Haddock is currently in jail for 10 years for an attack on a nightclub doorman last November .

Responding to the report, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde offered an apology to the victims' families. He said the report made "shocking, disturbing and uncomfortable reading".

NI Secretary Peter Hain said: "I am convinced that at least one prosecution will arise out of today's report." Sinn Fein president

Gerry Adams said republicans would "not be surprised or shocked by the revelations". "We think that it's an incentive that the mechanisms which were put in place for accountability, which we put in place and which we have argued for, now need to be deployed, not only to make sure that this does not happen (again), but if it does, that those guilty will be dealt with properly," he said.

Summary of the collusion report

Crimes Linked To Informants
The murders of 10 people
10 attempted murders
10 "punishment" shootings
13 "punishment" attacks
A bomb attack in Monaghan
17 instances of drug dealing
Additional criminality, including criminal damage, extortion and intimidation

Mrs O'Loan said former Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan was interviewed by her office, but was unable to assist the investigation. The report said: "Others, including some serving officers, gave evasive, contradictory, and on occasion farcical answers to questions. "On occasion those answers indicated either a significant failure to understand the law, or contempt for the law." Police collusion report in full

Meanwhile the father of one of the victims has stated that he intends to stand in the assembly election. It was Raymond McCord, whose complaint about a police investigation into his son's murder led to the ombudsman's report. Mr McCord intends to stand in north Belfast in the March election for the NI assembly. He said he felt "dismayed" at the reaction of unionist politicians to Nuala O'Loan's report. "I am going to give the Protestant and Catholic people a chance in north Belfast to put somebody in who is not frightened to tell the truth of what is going on here," Mr McCord said. "This campaign will stay on until people are in jail for my son."

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The O'Loan report on collusion